english literature essay

The Devil And Tom Walker English Literature Essay

Published: 23, March 2015

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The characters in the story is Tom Walker, Tom's wife and the Devil, in which Tom Walker is the protagonist. Tom Walker is the main character, Tom Walker seems to be a greedy, miserly and selfish man. His wife is also a miserly woman, and the relationship between them is not good, even though they are husband and wife. They cheat on each other and if Tom Walker's wife hide something from him, he does all he can to find it.

In the story, we can see several examples of different archetypes.

The first example of an archetype is the swamp, where Tom Walker meets the devil for the first time. Almost all people will consider a swamp as a dark and scary place and maybe with signs of something evil as well. This is exactly how the swamp in this story is described and this is a place where you might be able to meet the devil.

Another example of archetypes is the first time the Devil and Tom Walker is talking. The Devil is explaining to Tom who he is and he also describes himself. The Devil is often portrayed as a man is disguises and this story is no exception. He describes himself as a woodsman, a black miner and a huntsman and all of these disguises can be related to something dark and scary, which is exactly what the devil is.

The third example of an archetype is the black fingerprint in Tom Walker's forehead he gets when he is making the deal with the Devil. In many cultures it is common to get some sort of sign or mark when you are making a deal with something dark and evil, and this is exactly what that has happened here. The fingerprint is a mark of the beast and it has also left an impression on you, so you will not forget the deal you made.

Even though it might seemed like Tom Walker was doing something good when he lent money to poor people and acted like their only friend, the only thing he did was to make them even poorer. This is an example of verbal irony.

There is also an example of a satire in the story. When Tom is starting to regret his deal with the Devil, he thinks the church is able to protect him. Therefore, he all of a sudden becomes a churchgoer. He becomes a hypocrite, because he takes advantage of the church even though he is not a true Christian.

24 sentences

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls is written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls is a poem, written in the romantic period. It is written in the light romanticism, which had a focus on nature. The author and many other romanticists at this time was convinced that nature would go on, either with or without people living on this planet.

The setting takes place on a beach, with sand and waves.

A poem can always have several meanings and each analyze can be different, but one analyze that fits this poem and explains what the poem is about is that it is about life. A life will always come and go, just as the tide rises and falls. The same goes for time and nature, it will always come more time and the nature will not stop growing. The time will also pass, as well as nature.

In this poem, Longfellow has used personification, which means to give human qualities to nonhuman objects or animals. We can find an example of this on line eight in the poem. The line goes like this, "the little waves with their soft, white hands", and creates a mental picture for us. It is a common fact that waves do not have hands, but with the use of personification we an imagine how the waves is behaving.

There is also a use of alliteration in Longfellow's poem. Authors often use alliteration, which is a repetition of an initial consonant sound, to create flow in the poem. The example of alliteration is "The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls/ Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls". When this is read out load, it is easy to hear the rhythm and flow that the author wants to create. Alliteration is also used to create a pattern, which the author also has managed here.

19 SENTENCES

The Cross of Snow

"The Cross of Snow" is written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"The Cross of Snow" is a sonnet, which is a fourteen-lined rhymed poem.

This sonnet is written in the romanticism period and even though the text is about a dark thing as death, it is still a work of light romanticism. The sonnet tells us about a mountain and how it changes, even though his wife died and he is mourning. This shows us that the nature goes on, either with people living here on this earth or not.

There is two characters in this sonnet, a man, most likely Longfellow, and his dead wife. We do not know for sure, whether it is Longfellow or not in this poem. But since his wife died eighteen years ago, from the date the poem is written, it is a possibility. His wife, Fanny, died in a fire, just as the sonnet explains.

The story is mainly about Longfellow's wife and that he will never stop loving her.

The second and third line in the sonnet, "A gentle face-the face of one long dead-/ Looks at me from the wall, where round its head" creates a picture of sadness to the reader. It is most likely a picture of his beloved wife hanging on the wall, but to the reader it creates a sad feeling to the reader, because of the way it is written.

Longfellow writes about a cross in a mountain as well and compares it to a cross upon his breast. This cross can be a symbol of the love to his wife, since the cross upon his breast can be the same as his heart. The love he feel for his wife, will never change, no matter how much the nature and the world is changing.

15 sentences

Nature

"Nature" is written by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Nature" is an essay, written in the romantic period. The text is written in the light romanticism, and Emerson strongly believed that cities were bad influence on people. He would rather live in the nature, which were very good for you and is almost like a paradise to him.

The whole essay is about how beautiful and perfect the nature is. He writes that nature is not influenced by any mean or bad things, such as cities are.

In "Nature" we can find imagery several places. Imagery is used to create a mental image through very descriptive writing.

In the very first paragraph, we find the first example of imagery. They way he writes about the sky and the stars really makes us think about how beautiful it is. We see stars almost every single night and we rarely think about how beautiful it is, we take it for granted. But if the stars would only come out one time each thousand years, as Emerson writes, probably all people would go out to look for them.

The second example of imagery in "Nature" is when Emerson writes about how nice the air is. He compares it to different things and makes it exiting for the reader to read. Emerson almost compares it to the nature and that the nature always is reborn when something starts growing.

In the last example of imagery, Emerson explains how the nature always surprises him. He compares it with a ship in a storm, because a storm will always surprise you, even though you know there is a possibility of a storm when you are out sailing. He probably wants to explain that the nature is something wonderful and with lots of secrets. You will always see something new if you explore the nature, and you will be able to see all the amazing secrets it hides.

19 SENTENCES

Self-Reliance

"Self-Reliance" is written by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This text is an essay and it is written in the light romantic period. Since Emerson also wrote "Nature", these two texts are similar. For instance, Emerson still believes that nature is the best thing and that it can give you peace.

This essay is mainly about what each person needs to do, in order to become a better person and to be your own person. Already in the first sentence, Emerson tells us that it is very important to find your self. He writes: "that imitation is suicide", which means that if you are not your own person, you will eventually loose yourself. If you just takes parts from other people's personalities and then put them all together to one personality, it is like an imitation, according to Emerson, and you will lose yourself after a while.

Emerson writes a lot about the fact that each person should be independent and do his own work. The author writes that you can not be happy until you have and do a productive work. In order to be really happy, you need to break away from others, when it comes to your work.

According to Emerson, every person should also trust himself, and you should do everything yourself. Emerson thinks the society is just a conspiracy against each person, and therefore you should only trust yourself and do the things that needs to be done, such as work, yourself. He even says that self-reliance is the opposite of a society and that is something people really do not need.

Emerson has strong opinions about what that is right and what you must do and what that is not right. He for instance says that all people must question things in nature and about yourself. If you do not do this, you are not considered to be an adult. However, if you do question different things, you will be able to win fame. By asking several questions, you will also be able to explore different things, and there fore learn about them.

19 sentences

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is a work of dark romanticism and is written by the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The story takes place in Dr. Heidegger's house. Hawthorne uses a very descriptive language and therefore the reader gets a very clear picture of how the surroundings looks like. The reader get the feeling of a creepy and scary room, with spiderwebs in each corner and a skeleton placed inside a locker. It also sounds like it is a long time since the room has been used, because the author writes about dusty items in the room, such as frames.

The story is about Dr. Heidegger that claims he has found the "Fountain of Youth". He invites a few of his friends, so they can try it and see if it really works on humans too. He already knows it works on roses, but wants to test it on humans as well. When Dr. Heidegger's friends get this water, they become younger, but they also want more and more of the water. Eventually, they get back to their normal age, even though none of them like it.

The short story has five characters. The main character and protagonist is Dr. Heidegger. The other characters are named Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Medbourne, Mr. Gascoigne and Widow Wycherly. The author has also decided to use allegories in this story. An allegory is a story where the characters themselves represents different ideas or symbols. In this story, for instance, Widow Wycherly represents vanity, while some of the male characters represents greed.

The rose Dr. Heidegger first tries the water on, is also a symbol in this short story. The rose symbolizes rebirth, because when the rose get the special water, it comes to life again, even though it has been dead for decades. It is also a symbol of his wife, who he managed to kill by an accident several years ago. Dr. Heidegger most likely want to bring his wife back to life, even though it is impossible, so the rose also represents his ability to let go of his wife.

The theme of the story, is mostly about greed. All of the characters want to get more and more of the water, and just become even more greedy when they get more of it. The story can also teach people to cherish the good things we already have in life and not ruin them. In this story the characters want for something else than what they already have and they probably do not want to accept the fact that they have become old. They should rather accept it and make the best out of it.

25 sentences

The Minister's Black Veil

"The Minister's Black Veil" is a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The story is a work of dark romanticism.

The story takes place in a church at a place called Milford. It is about the minister showing up with a black veil in front of his face and all the curiosity around it. Everybody becomes afraid of both the veil and the minister, and no one understands why he is wearing it.

Even though there are several characters, there is only one important one, and that is Parson Hooper, which is the minister of the church. Mr. Hooper was one of those people that everybody liked, but everybody started do dislike him and be afraid of him after he started wearing the veil. Another character that helps the story to move along, is his wife, Elizabeth. She does not play a major role in the story, but she tries to get her husband to remove his veil, but without succeeding.

The biggest and most important part of this story is the veil, which also is a symbol. A symbol gives meaning to an object that is recognized by cultural context, and one of the things it represents in this story is sins. The veil is almost like a mirror for the people looking at it, because they might start thinking of their own sins. This might be the reason why people can not stand the veil and that they do not want to look at it. In the beginning of the story, there is a lot of gossip about the veil. People wonder if there is a reason for wearing it, if he has done something awful to get the veil or if he know something about other people than himself. The veil also represents the dark side of humanity, because of all the sins in this world. It represents the dark for the minister as well, because he gets trapped behind this veil, like a prison, for his whole life.

Hawthorne has used a little verbal irony in "The Minister's Black Veil" as well. After reading the story, the reader understands that no one likes to talk with the minister after he started wearing his veil, and most people just wants to avoid him. Therefore, it is ironic that some of the people in the church invites Mr. Hooper to sit at their table to eat.

In the end, the veil has completely become a part of Mr. Hooper. He refuses to take it off, even though he is on his deathbed. It is very typical Nathaniel Hawthorne to make the main character become the part of something, as Mr. Hooper becomes in this story.

The moral in the story is mostly that each person should check themselves for sins. People should not focus on other people, like Mr. Hooper, when they rather should focus on themselves and their own secret sins.

24 sentences

the chamered nautilus

Eldorado

"Eldorado" is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe. It is also a work of dark romanticism, because it is about greed and death.

The poem have one character, a gallant knight. The knight is on a journey, trying to find Eldorado, which is a land made out of gold. However, he never manages to find the legendary place he is looking for.

The knight is an archetype in this story. An archetype is a symbol universally recognized by all people and a knight is often recognized in all cultures. A knight often symbolizes a quest or a search for something, which he does in this poem as well.

The shadow is a symbol in this story. For each stanza the shadow represents something different, yet the same only a deeper meaning.

In the first stanza the shadow is just a normal shadow we see when there is sunlight. I does not really mean anything specific here, but eventually the meaning will be deeper.

The next stanza tells the reader about a shadow in the knights heart. This is a consequence of the fact that he can not find what he is looking for. 14-14-14

In the third stanza, the shadow has developed into a ghost.

In the last stanza the shadow represents death and tells the reader that it is only possible to find Eldorado when you die.

The moral for this story is that people should not spend a whole life on something that is impossible to find or achieve. The knight in this story is greedy and wants to find gold so he can become rich, but he dies during his quest and has wasted his whole life looking for something he never could find.

18 sentences

The Pit and the Pendulum

This story is written by Edgar Allan Poe.

It is a work of dark romanticism because it deals with issues such as torture and the dark thoughts of a man locked inside a prison.

There is only one character in this story, but we do not get to know his name. This character is also the narrator of the story.

The setting of the story, which is the place of a story, is described as a prison. It is a very gloomy and dark place, where the main character hardly can see anything. He does not know what that is going to happen next, and this is a factor that contributes to that fact that the character looses the reality. This place where the character is also a place that symbolizes hell.

The story is all about the main character getting tortured by his the people keeping him in prison. The reader get to know his thoughts and how he feels, so it is easier to understand what torture is like. Fortunately, the character lives in the end and there is hope for him as well.

The author does not explain exactly why the main character is in prison, but we know that he is seen as a subversive. This means that he is against the government, which at that time was the church.

Poe has used parallelism in "the Pit and the Pendulum" to emphasize something. Parallelism is often used for this, but also to create flow and a pattern in the story. In this story the author wants to tell us that there is a little hope for the character. The fact that there is a little hope, is very untypical for Edgar Allan Poe. He is know for writing very dark stories, where most of the characters either die or get crazy.

The pendulum in the story represents a slow death and torture. Poe also wants the reader to know that almost all people have both a pit and a pendulum and that we are slowly pushed towards our death. This is fits the dark romanticism very good and it is also very typical this author.

In the end of the story, the narrator live and he has not become crazy. This also represents hope and a second chance and this is very unusual for Poe to write about.

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